This application relates to a turbine component, such as a turbine blade or vane, wherein microcircuit cooling channels include a plurality of axially spaced radially extending channels, wherein the channels are fed by a plurality of radially spaced inlets.
Gas turbine engines are known, and typically include a plurality of sections mounted in series. Typically, a fan delivers air to compressor sections. The air is compressed and delivered downstream into a combustor section. Air is mixed with fuel in the combustor section and burned. Hot products of combustion are delivered downstream over turbine rotors, and cause the turbine rotors to rotate.
Typically, the turbine rotors include a plurality of removable blades, and a plurality of static vane sections positioned intermediate successive turbine stages. The products of combustion are quite hot, and thus the turbine blades and vanes are subjected to very high temperatures. To protect these components from the detrimental effect of the high temperatures gases, various schemes are provided for cooling the components. One cooling scheme is to circulate cooling air within an airfoil associated with the component. A plurality of relatively large central cooling channels may circulate air within a body of the airfoil. More recently, heat exchangers have been formed as local cooling channels between the central cooling channels and an outer wall at relatively hot locations on the airfoil. These so-called “microcircuit” cooling channels included a plurality of sub-channels spaced radially relative to a rotational axis of the turbine rotors. Air passing through these sub-channels generally flows along a direction parallel to the axis of rotation. The radially spaced sub-channels are supplied cooling air from a plurality of radially spaced inlets which connect into one of the central cooling channels.
Radially extending cooling channels provide beneficial cooling effects in some applications. However, to provide radially extending, axially spaced cooling sub-channels would require a plurality of axially spaced inlets. This could create a relatively large void parallel to the axis of the rotation, creating a structural weak point on the airfoil, which would be undesirable since the blades rotate at very high speeds.